The Epistle of Barnabas

What then does he say in the Prophet? And let them eat of the goat which is offered in the fast for all their sins. Attend carefully,—and let all the priests alone eat the entrails unwashed with vinegar.

Why? Because you are going to give to me gall and vinegar to drink when I am on the point of offering my flesh for my new people, therefore you alone shall eat, while the people fast and mourn in sackcloth and ashes. To show that he must suffer for them.

Note what was commanded: Take two goats, goodly and alike, and offer them, and let the priest take the one as a burnt offering for sins.

But what are they to do with the other? The

And do ye all spit on it, and goad it, and bind the scarlet wool about its head, and so let it be cast into the desert. And when it is so done, he who takes the goat into the wilderness drives it forth, and takes away the wool, and puts it upon a shrub which is called Rachel,[*](It is probable that Barnabas has mistaken a word meaning a hill for the name of a herb with which he was familiar; but it is not clear whether the confusion was made in Hebrew or in Greek (ῥαχός = a brier, and sometimes a wild-olive, and ῥάχις = a mountain ridge, seems to suggest some such possibility). But the identity of the herb is unknown. There is an interesting article on it in the Journal of Biblical Literature, 1890, by Rendel Harris.) of which we are accustomed to eat the shoots when we find them in the country: thus of Rachel alone is the fruit sweet.

What does this mean? Listen: the first goat is for the altar, but the other is accursed, and note that the one that is accursed is crowned, because then they will see him on that day with the long scarlet robe down to the feet on his body, and they will say, Is not this he whom we once crucified and rejected and pierced and spat upon? Of a truth it was he who then said that he was the Son of God.

But how is he like to the goat? For this reason: the goats shall be alike, beautiful, and a pair, in order that when they see him come at that time they may be astonished at the likeness of the goat. See then the type of Jesus destined to suffer.

But why is it that they put the wool in the middle of the thorns? It is a type of Jesus placed in the Church, because whoever wishes to take away the scarlet wool must suffer much because the thorns

But what do you think that it typifies, that the[*](The sacrifice of a heifer) commandment has been given to Israel that the men in whom sin is complete offer a heifer and slay it and burn it, and that boys then take the ashes and put them into vessels and bind scarlet wool on sticks (see again the type of the Cross and the scarlet wool) and hyssop, and that the boys all sprinkle the people thus one by one in order that they all be purified from their sins?

Observe how plainly he speaks to you. The calf is Jesus; the sinful men offering it are those who brought him to be slain. Then there are no longer men, no longer the glory[*](This seems to be the only possible translation, but the text must surely be corrupt.) of sinners.

The boys who sprinkle are they who preached to us the forgiveness of sins, and the purification of the heart, to whom he gave the power of the Gospel to preach, and there are twelve as a testimony to the tribes, because there are twelve tribes of Israel.

But why are there three boys who sprinkle? As a testimony to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for these are great before God.